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California is the 6th largest
economy in the world. It's economy is larger
than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a country. It is a State in the United
States of America. It has little offshore
oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous
for their oil reserves, like Texas.
California generates much of its
revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and
domesticate much of the intellectual output from its premier
university, Stanford University, into sale able products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of
California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this,
Silicon valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at
least once in your life. Now with
Silicon Valley came companies like
Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google,
Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad
infinitum.These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of
any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly
budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about
companies that are richer than countries. They are all in
California. But that is just in the technology industry where the
technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair
and converted to money spinning enterprises.
But there is also the
entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US
movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP.
Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that
figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact,
the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures,
MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio
Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or
were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar
companies generating revenue for
California.
Despite the above, California also
thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than
77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue
yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of
which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in
America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with
relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America.
You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and
striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It
could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that
every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to
Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely
pay salaries of its workers and
nothing more. Then San Francisco
would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would
not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what
it is today. But No, not California.
Not America. California gives to
the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending
on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs
California to survive, not the
other way round.
You see, America is structured in
such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth
for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States.
There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your
wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the
captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which
the ship will sail. That is
America. The local government, the
government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made
the strongest level of government.
Items like Variances (adaptation
of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public
works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public
accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left
for local county governments to handle. The State handles
weightier matters like Property law, Education, Commerce laws of
ownership and exchange, Banking and
credit laws, Labour law and
professional licensure, Insurance laws, and Electoral laws, including
parties and Civil service laws. Items that the Federal Government, the
center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.
Nigeria on the contrary will never
do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system
but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government,
and it is weighing the polity
down. Can you imagine a country
where the school curriculum is regulated by a national central
body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum?
So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what
they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister
of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened
with antiquated school curriculum
until such a time (if we are
lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who
would realise how far behind we are and bring the curriculum up to
date. Just take a look at the
science curriculum for grade
students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently
read of a high school in Japan which has amended its curriculum
to include robotics and drones
technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But
our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students
are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of physics and chemistry
in our schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers
and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few public
schools that are lucky to have labs, all you see are miserable nameless
creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention.
These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first
misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and
then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And
because the control of our curriculum is central, there is nothing
potentially proactive or progressive-minded States can do about this.
You would think this is not a
problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION
NAIRA every year to study abroad, despite there being over
100 tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Not one is deemed good enough. You
see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton,
Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the
citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in
their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students
from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational
system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the
economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States
completely depend on or revolve around schools.
What would the
city of cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or
Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities
depend on these universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria
had invested in its universities and was earning $1billion dollars
a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would
be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing
companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where students
are constantly doing and selling their research products to
burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently,
three students in Sweden conducted research and came up
with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The
product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these
students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage,
can you imagine how much revenue sweden would earn from
these product? Do your research, most of the world-class products
we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by university
students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard
University, there would not have been facebook, and this our
interface would have been impossible.
But our students In Nigeria are
not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates
Confraternity, the Black Axe, the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!!
Students.....
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